I have never understood completely the whole bmr, cals burned vs cals in etc.. i think i may have it now but i want some reassurance lol

i am 44, female , 5'3, and weigh 304lbs... from three online bmr calculators i took the average and its 2060.... soooo

if i were to eat 1700 cals per day, that would be a deficate of 360per day for a total of 2520 per week...

if i were to exercise and burn 350 cals per day that would be 2450 burned per week...

total deficate would be 4970 for the week?? and it takes 3500 to burn off one lb of fat, so i would lose approx 1.5 lbs per week??

am i right? or did i just show my ignorance? lol

any help would be appreciated...

I'm going to trust that your math is right, but the thing is that it's not always very easy to determine either your BMR or your calorie expenditures. All of the calculators are at best, averages and are the most accurate for the smallest people (and even then not all that accurate).

I've used the math since I was 12, and I can only say that over the years, the accuracy decreased over time with each weight loss attempt. So at 12 or even 15, the charts and calculators I found were pretty effective, but the more I weighed and the older I got, the more and more they overestimated my loss.

Probably this is because dieting (or lifestyle changes which involve calorie restriction) can reduce metabolism. Since you can't easily determine your "true" BMR, or the rate at which you burn calories, the best you can do is guesstimate. If you've never dieted before, you probably will be able to burn more calories than if you've dieted many times before.

All I can say is use the math for "fun," or for a ballpark guesstimate, but if your weight loss doesn't measure up, don't assume you failed.

All those number can be mindboggling. I'm glad I didn't know about some of that when I started.

My dream beginner would write down everything they ate for a few days and figure out how many calories were in their normal intake. From there, this delightful newbie would cut some ... and hang around at 3FC for support and further advice

in theory it sounds about right but everyone is different and you may find your metabolism is slower than the BMR tests are saying.

I'm still new at this but I would say that looks like a good place to start. Monitor your weight as you go and be as accurate as possible in recording calories. If after a couple weeks your weight loss rate isn't where you'd like it tweak your calories down a bit and your exercise up a bit and see how that works. Once you find the "math" that works for you stick with it for awhile.

I slowly decrease my calories by entering my daily weight in at the daily plate. As I lose a pound or so my calorie per day go down slightly. I started on November 8th at 1900ish calories and am now at 1850 as my daily goal.

Looks right to me but just remember those calculator are not exact so its just a rough estimate. As long as your losing I would keep doing what your doing and change it when you stop losing or slow down for more than a few weeks.